Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Business Film Instructor




This is the latest documentary I put together at the Instructional Technology office, where I work and have just finished training the next generation how to make propaganda for the university communications office. The university wants invitational and student life videos to come from the students instead of the media relations board. (Student-led propaganda would also give the impression that students have more control over the university than they in fact do.)

The video above, however, focuses on an instructor in the School of Business and Leadership who uses documentary filmmaking as an instructional device in her Entrepreneurship class.

My thoughts on business schools aside, film is an increasingly effective way to reach wider audiences. I have found that people will often watch a video before they read an article or a review. That is a rhetorical aspect. (Obviously for business students, having an understanding of film can help sell products and ideas.) But working with film also gives different insights in comparison to other instructional media since it focuses easily on emotions, moral dilemmas, and inter-personal relationships.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

moral dilemmas, you mean like deciding whether to exploit labor or repossess a house?

Acumensch said...

exactly. what's more ironic is that business ethics are subject to the same criterion as everything else - performance - and bad practices will drive out good practices.